How great that you stopped by to share some of your wonderful prose with us. Thanks for that.

Here's to our continued journeys together and to seeing a certain tall, handsome ent around here more often. Koru: Maori symbol representing a fern frond as it opens. The koru reaches towards the light, striving for perfection, encouraging new, positive beginnings.

"Life can't be all work and no TORn" -- jflower

"I take a moment to fervently hope that the camaradarie and just plain old fun I found at TORn will never end" -- LOTR_nutcase

Try charcoal for a much quicker result! Just to get the feeling for light and shade.

With a pencil sketch it's too tempting to stop after you've drawn outlines of things and most of the paper is still white. But a good percentage (half?) of the page wants to be covered in marks, in order to give some depth and tone. With charcoal, that's much quicker and easier to acheive. And because it's less exact, you're forced to be looser and more "painterly".

And yes, it'd be great to see you on a sketching tour. And (thinking out loud) I'm sure Red Carpet tours will need my assistance on The Hobbit Premiere tour, sketching or not - but I'll still bring along my art kit....

Already on Friday I was teary-eyed, and I said that by Sunday I might need the whole box of Kleenex.

So I do.

THANK YOU for stopping by, Quickbeam--I have missed your ijput more than you could know. What wonderful tjoghts and I could not more agree in turn. It's been an amazing ten years (though I wa snot here for all ten:), but I look forward more than ever to your future contributions!

Doug Adams, musician, composer, writer and author of the upcoming book: The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films, (as well as good friend to many here), sends this message along:

Quote

Tolkien always stressed the importance of "home," the sanctuary and standard by which all our worldly exploits gain their resonance. Congratulations--and thank you-- to TheOneRing for providing fans that home for 10 years now!

As usual your way with words are a delight and they warm the heart. I am very glad you are here to celebrate this occasion being you are a part of its rich history and helped bring to light many wonderful things. It would be a delight for the next generation of TORnsibs to get to know you and i hope you will hang around for a ent age Hoom Hom!:).

SO.....what have you been doing all these years, Fangorn wanderer?. ''What connects Nature to the spiritual, or requires the presence of the latter? In positive terms, as Alkis Kontos points out, when nature was still largely experienced as integral, alive and active, 'It was the spiritual dimension of the world, its enchanted, magical quality that rendered it infinite, not amenable to complete calculability; spirit could not be quanified; it permitted and invited mythologization.' And I would add, it still is and does.'' Patrick Curry-Defending Middle-Earth-Tolkien: Myth and Modernity - chapter: 'The Sea: Spirituality and Ethics.'

May the grace of ManwŰ let us soar with eagle's wings! In the air, among the clouds in the sky Here is where the birds of Manwe fly Looking at the land, and the water that flows The true beauty of earth shows With the stars of Varda lighting my way In all the realms this is where I stay In the realm of ManwŰ S˙limo

Thanks Elven! I just made another reply about the Middle-earth map YOU made - it looks wonderful! Well done!

I'm still hoping that a book might be possible too. Maybe the chance will come with The Hobbit - I'll try to get in early this time.

Red Carpet Tours are keen to run another Sketching Tour, probably next Autumn - I'll announce it on my website with plenty of advance warning.

I've started sussing out the calligraphy world (after working in a vacuum for years), so yes, classes and exhibitions are on the cards. I now edit the Calligraphers of Kapiti newsletter, and will run a small local workshop this year - and things will move onwards and upwards from there....

It is so nice to hear from you to help celebrate our founders and TORn.

I remember quite vividly the conference when you spoke with Tom Shippey. I have not be able to do that trip again being New Jersey is so far away.

The very best to you for the future. Cheers! ''What connects Nature to the spiritual, or requires the presence of the latter? In positive terms, as Alkis Kontos points out, when nature was still largely experienced as integral, alive and active, 'It was the spiritual dimension of the world, its enchanted, magical quality that rendered it infinite, not amenable to complete calculability; spirit could not be quanified; it permitted and invited mythologization.' And I would add, it still is and does.'' Patrick Curry-Defending Middle-Earth-Tolkien: Myth and Modernity - chapter: 'The Sea: Spirituality and Ethics.'

May the grace of ManwŰ let us soar with eagle's wings! In the air, among the clouds in the sky Here is where the birds of Manwe fly Looking at the land, and the water that flows The true beauty of earth shows With the stars of Varda lighting my way In all the realms this is where I stay In the realm of ManwŰ S˙limo

Ah yes, those Red Carpet mornings are always a treat for me too! I get fed breakfast (2nd and 3rd breakfasts too!) and meet all you lovely folks! It's true, you know - LOTR fans really are wonderful people. So it's a pleasure for me to bring pleasure to you! A win-win situation!

I meant to post a reply to your thread yesterday, but it was a very full day. I've got a dreadful feeling that I was meant to reply to an email of yours ages ago, about your latest book - I'll troll through my email system and see what's what. Sorry if I've missed it... :-]

I'm going to assume Elven's okay with me doing this (it's a long reach from her arm to my head if it isn't) and I think she said she's lost some of these digital files so I may be the only one to have them.

I offered to host her footer images so I have quite a collection. I might have larger ones of these on my harddrive but I'm not finding anything I want today so I'll go with these.

Elven's map''What connects Nature to the spiritual, or requires the presence of the latter? In positive terms, as Alkis Kontos points out, when nature was still largely experienced as integral, alive and active, 'It was the spiritual dimension of the world, its enchanted, magical quality that rendered it infinite, not amenable to complete calculability; spirit could not be quanified; it permitted and invited mythologization.' And I would add, it still is and does.'' Patrick Curry-Defending Middle-Earth-Tolkien: Myth and Modernity - chapter: 'The Sea: Spirituality and Ethics.'

May the grace of ManwŰ let us soar with eagle's wings! In the air, among the clouds in the sky Here is where the birds of Manwe fly Looking at the land, and the water that flows The true beauty of earth shows With the stars of Varda lighting my way In all the realms this is where I stay In the realm of ManwŰ S˙limo

I work at home, and my home is on a back section, down a long driveway, away from the street. It's quite a big property (by suburban standards) with many trees and lots of bush. So I have a quiet room, birdsong outside (especially the tui, a beautiful native bird with an INCREDIBLE vocabulary of sounds), hardly any street noise, trees everywhere I look - all in all, it's a pretty conducive environment for creating art.

My only distractions are self-imposed: having a coffee (I have a fantastic espresso machine), getting outside for some exercise, mowing the lawn, chopping firewood, cooking meals (I like to cook), etc.